This webinar was delivered to assist technical administrators that are new to Uniprint with the ins and outs of the Pharos GUI Administrator. The intent was to deliver a strong overview with surface level detail meant to provide new Uniprint administrators enough detail to begin applying the basic functions and configurations of the system.

(This will be the first of series of 6 for 2016 (more details to follow) where we will touch on important areas of interest shared by our customers.)

AGENDA

What is the Pharos Administrator (PA)

Where can the application be installed? The difference between PA and Pharos Remote.

Doesn't the latest version of Pharos now allow admins to use a propriatary Pharos print server service, rather than a windows print server/service?

Uniprint still relies on the "Windows Print Spooler" for the "spooling" of print jobs. We do however use a proprietary "Port Monitor" that captures the job from the Windows Spooler after it has been spooled.

What version of Pharos has Third Party Charging?

Third Party Charging has been in the product as long as I have been supporting the product, since Uniprint 6.x.

Can you have a printer that is in multiple print groups?

In Uniprint you can have a "Device" (physical printer) assigned to Multiple "Print Groups". Since the Job Cost Method is assigned to the Print Group, you can have multiple Print Groups that use different Job Cost Methods.

How many devices can you associate with a release station

There is no real upper limit however most often a Secure Print configuration is typically 1 device to one release station. I have seen customers utilize 3-5 devices in a print room with one PC Release Station, this way users can login, print then logout and while their job is printing others can login.

In my pharos remote, when the user clicks on it, it asks for an admin password. this is on a new workstation, all my other ones are ok

This sounds like an issue that was seen with Pharos Remote in Uniprint 9.0. There is a Hot Fix on our web site that should be applied. From here https://community.pharos.com/docs/DOC-1632 use the Pharos Remote Revision 131 Hot Fix.

With those queue settings ( Duplex Etc) once the change is made does the user see it or does the package have to be updated on both sides?

When you make a change to the Print Queue on the server the "Pharos Package" that you install on the client will have to be re-installed for the client machine to receive the updated settings. If you use the "Updater Module" in the Package then this should take care of updating the client machine with changes made to the Queue.

Is Reprint only for release stations/mobile? What about a job sent to a direct Pharos queue associated to an IP printer?

You can use the "Reprint" function in Uniprint regardless of the Print method, Secure or Direct. Print Jobs that are held for "Reprint" can only be released via the Pharos Administrator and Pharos Remote.

Also, what is being used for the Online State Check in Devices? SNMP status? If so, what happens if SNMP polling is disabled on the device?

SNMP v1/v2 needs to be enabled on the device. If this is disabled on the device then this function that is designed to help the printing process will not work as expected and users may end up losing print jobs and getting charged for them. Uniprint does allow you to use a different Community name for SNMP if your devices are configured as such.

What version of Pharos do I need to get the Updater Service?

The Pharos Updater Service was introduced in Uniprint 9.0 R2.

Why can't I set different prices for different devices when using MobilePrint?

We have different devices in different departments that want to charge different rates. We do that with Uniprint by using different

Print Groups, but there is only one MobilePrint Print Group

There is a new feature in Uniprint 9.0 R2 Service Pack 3 that adds Device Level Charging. You can set a Job Cost Method to a Device and configure it to override that of the Print Group.

What kind of updates have to be made to packages? I know it always searches for updates and never finds any.

Changes that need cause the Package to be rebuilt are in the Help File under "Changing Package Definition Properties". These include Name, Description, Base Filename, Supported Architectures, Last Build Time, Custom Modules, EULA Filename, Web Page Group, Pharos Supplied Modules and Queues.

How do we get updater service

You will need to upgrade your Uniprint system to Uniprint 9.0 R2 which contains the Updater Component.

So what does change control do, if it automatically saves settings?

An entry's configuration in the Pharos Administrator is saved as soon as the entry being configured loses focus (i.e. as soon as something else is selected). Changes are not saved while the entry is still being edited, so that multiple properties can be altered at once. Change Control informs the "System" that there are changes that need to be obtained from the database and applied.

With direct printing, if a patron login "signup" can you still charge a patron for the color or b/w print.

You could utilize the Popup Client on the workstations and configure the system for users to acknowledge the print costs at the time of submission. I would contact your Account manager to have more discussions on how this can be done.

Do printers in a print group need to use the same driver or can they use different drivers?

The best way to do this is to use the same driver for device in the same print group. The Driver is configured on the Queue which is tied to a Print Group which has associated Devices. Diligent testing on a common driver that will work across all Devices in the Print Group for jobs submitted to said Queue is the best way to figure out which driver you should use. not all drivers will provide the best result across various models of the same manufacturer. We do not have control over output fidelity so testing will be the key to determingin which one to use on the Queue.

What does the knowledgebase run on? Every time I try to use the search option, it grinds away after giving a script error.

This is more of a client side Web Browser issue that could be brought up with your internal IT Team, we are not having anyone report a problem with our Knowledge base site. We have recently updated our backend system and KB web site so perhaps you can try again. I recommend trying with different web browsers as well.

I've noticed that sometimes certain jobs can only be seen by the administrator. What would cause this?

Without knowing more background on "which" jobs are being see in the Pharos Administrator and what you are expecting to see I cannot say. First though ensure that there is no filter on the Queued Jobs sectiion your looking at, presumably this is where you are viewing jobs in the system and what you mean by "jobs can only be seen by the administrator".

Is there some updated documentation somewhere on recommended setup for release stations?

The current documentation contains information on how to install the "PC Pharos Station" software onto a Windows workstation. The steps to do this have not changed in many years so the documentation does not have any new steps on how to install the software.

The "Copy" Device function is only present if a feature that controls copies is also installed/licensed, correct?

To the best of my Knowledge you may see a "Copy" option for the Device but unable to select it or it will not function. I would have to double check on what is seen in the Pharos Administrator UI.

What verison of pharos do you need to have the "updater servcice?"

The Pharos Updater Service component is only available in thelatest version of Uniprint, this is Uniprint 9.0 R2.

Can you share the slides used today?

We will be sharing the recording with the slides and the answers to all the questions.

Can you please share the link to the instructions for building MAC packages?

There is currently no notification system available. You will need to rely on other 3rd party service monitoring tools or some other mechanism.

Can I have multiple print groups for 1 device?

Yes you can. A Device can be assigned to multiple Print Groups.

Can you show how to make a release station login by a user's card ID?

Unfortunately there is a bit more to configure this to happen that is easily written here for an answer. You can contact your Account Manager to help you get started in working with someone from our Optimization team and they will know the corrcet questions to ask that discover the specifics to your site. In a nutshell the PC Station will only accept one form of Authentication, either Card Swipe ro User/Pwd but not either at the same time.

Does this new version allow you to send reports directly to finance for cost center charging up to Benner yet?

Uniprint does not have a function yet of automatic Report Generation that can be sent via email.

Has anyone ever seen a error when you log into the release station a balance of -$99,999.00. If you log back out and immediatley back in, it goes away .... but I see this often in our labs.

The value is the result of a few OLDER scripts (2007-2010) where the user is not found in the DB during a balance call the script would return the value -99,999.99. Potentially you can upgrade your billing script to return a more pleasent error message to the users. It is possible that your Billing script is also inserting the user when they are not found which would cause a subsequent logon attempt to succeed.

Is there a specific order/sequence in which you should add the objects? (1. Device, 2. Print Group, 3. Queues, 4. Release Station)

There is no defined order of operations when inserting PrintGroups, Device, Queues. However if you do not have the Print Group you won’t be able to choose it when creating the Queue or the Device. I usually do it backwards and create my Queue then my Device. I then circle back and create a Print group then I have to go change the Device/Queue again. So I could do the Group first and make it easy. :)

Is there any way to add extra information to the devices or release stations? Such as owner, location, department, phone number.

Unfortunately there is not at this time because the Database Record for a "Device" in the system does not have columns that reflect those names. The Device record also does not have custom fields so to speak that could be used for additional data.

It happens sometimes when user orders print but when he tries to release the print job it never prints and also user gets charged , what is the best approach to deal with situations like these?

There are various pieces of information that can be used to understand why the job was not printed. The first place to begin is to ensure Uniprint Logging is enabled, if you can replicate the problem on demand the logs will be very helpful. You can also use the Alerts section in Pharos Administrator to search for the user/date/time they the job was not printed but the user was charged to see if there is an Alert for them this ill have some information that can help.

The pharos administrator app has a password to log into the app. Can this be changed in the system settings under EDI service password? And does this affect any devices that use the EDI service?

The username and password used to login to the Pharos Administrator is different than the EDI password. The password for the user logging into the Pharos Administrator can be changed by an Administrator of the system.

The Question Group is in the Packages context under the Queues. Does that mean that if I want to change which questions are asked that I need to rebuild (and redeploy) the packages?

The "Package" does not have to be re-built when you change the "Question Group" setting on the Queue.

We are currently run on version 9.0 and I can't find the "Third Party Charging" option

Third Party Charging is a licensed item and if you are not licensed for it then it will not appear in the Pharos Administrator.

We give our students 350 - if they run out we would like to give them an additional 50 without requesting pages - how can you do that?

I'm not exactly sure of the Units that 350 or 50 represent however you can manually login to the Pharos Administrator and add an additional 50 units to the User account in the system.

We only allow Letter size paper. Can we lock all our printers to not accept jobs send on a different paper size?

Uniprint can be configured to to allow a job to be "Released" to a Device based on paper Size however to have the system ignore the print job on its way "Into" the system (Job Submission) one would need to use a custom script.

When you make a change in Administrator, it is automatically saved, but not "sent" to the devices until you hit Change Control. There is no "Undo" of settings you changed during a Pharos Administrator session, right? If you exit Administrator without clicking Change Control, those changed settings are still 'saved', right?

That is correct. An entry's configuration is saved as soon as the entry being configured loses focus (i.e. as soon as something else is selected). Changes are not saved while the entry is still being edited, so that multiple properties can be altered at once. Change Control informs the "System" that there are changes that need to be obtained from the database and applied.

Does/can the batch user upload function include error handling, i.e. go to the next account if a user object cannot be added/deleted for whatever reason?

The UserLoad.exe will move on to the next record if an error occurrs on the current one it is processing. This is what is used for the Batch Load function within the Pharos Administrator and can be run on its own with an input file and a set of command line switches.

Server configuration> are there notifications or emails if any status changes from green to yellow / red?

Unfortunately Uniprint does not have a system to "Notify" administrators vie email or other means. There is a scripting system that could be used to build a custom script that could potentially be used to assist in this area.

Under charging- we do not have the "third Party Charging" how do you populate that option onto the list on the left?

Third Party Charging is a licensed item and if you are not licensed for it then it will not appear in the Pharos Administrator.

How do you make a computer lab a pay for print without using a release station

You could utilize the Popup Client on the workstations and configure the system for users to acknowledge the print costs at the time of submission. I would contact your Account manager to have more discussions on how this can be done.

I didn't catch if you said the package updater can be configured to run in silent mode...?

The Package Updater that runs on a client machine does not have a "Silent" mode.

How do you join the Pharos community?

Visit the web site community.pharos.com and click the "Register" link in the top right hand corner.

I see staple as an option in both Per Page Attribute Cost and Per Job Attribute Costs. Which one shoud I use for a staple?

"Staple" for a Per Page Attribute cost will only charge the cost for Staple on a per page basis, this means that a 10 page job with a Staple cost will charge the Staple cost 10 times. "Staple" for a Per Job Attribute cost will charge the cost setup for Staple one time for the entire job.

When can we expect a Release Station app for iOS?

This would have to be directed to the Product Manager.

...but for the changes to be saved he need to click on change control correct ?

An entry's configuration in the Pharos Administrator is saved as soon as the entry being configured loses focus (i.e. as soon as something else is selected). Changes are not saved while the entry is still being edited, so that multiple properties can be altered at once. Change Control informs the "System" that there are changes that need to be obtained from the database and applied.

Can you talk about installing print drivers?

This is something that may be better discussed on a one on one basis. Microsoft has a mechanism to install a printer driver to a Windows machine of which we have no part in the process. There is plenty of good documentation on the Internet and Microsoft’s web site on how to do this. A small tip is not to use the manufacturer’s installation utilities to install the driver. Extract the driver files from the manufacturer you downloaded and install them using the "have disk" option during the Microsoft Add Driver Wizard.

How does a user reprint a job, if that option is enabled?

When the Reprint option is enabled the print job can only be released using Pharos Remote or Pharos Administrator.

I'm not sure of the exact question but if you are referring to a print job that has been released to a device, logging out of the device should not affect the physical printer printing the job. This is not something that Uniprint controls however. When we successfully sent the data (payload) to the device and the device replied happily that it got the whole thing we have successfully sent the job to the device and it should print the job. Logging out of a Terminal/Release Station does not stop the device from its printing process.

Is there a recommended or theoretical maximum number of hosted queues per Pharos print server? Or maximum jobs per minute or hour? Print servers hand out drivers, spool jobs, and all of the Pharos accounting transactions. Do larger institutions spool to a non-default directory (%systemroot%\System32\spool\)? what about spooling to flash-based storage?

You would need to follow the Microsoft Print Management guide to recommended number of Print Queue that the Windows Print Server will support. We utilize a Port Monitor to "siphon" the job from the Windows Spooler. As for changing the directory that the Windows Spooler saves files to on disk there are many that change this to a volume where the OS is not living and in terms of the underlying storage system whether or not it is an SSD drive or a super fast "Storage system" is one thing I tend to stay away from as organizations use different mechanisms in their environments. So what works best for you organization needs to be considered.

Server configuration> are there notifications or emails if any status changes from green to yellow / red?

Unfortunately Uniprint does not have a system to "Notify" administrators vie email or other means. There is a scripting system that could be used to build a custom script that could assist in this area.

If in reprint queue, can an electricity failure cause jobs to just print all of a sudden thereby eliminating security on some print jobs - because they are already in a printer queue?

Uniprint will not "Deliver" a print job to a device when there is an electricity failure. If a printer is in the middle of printing a job and the power is cut to the device, it may continue to print the job again once power has been restored to the device. You will need to consult the manufacturer of the device to understand how it will behave in this situation.

I believe that statement about reprint holding period is incorrect- as those jobs are not shown to the user queue only via remote or admin- he needs to correct that statement

Jobs that are held for "Reprint" can only be released via the Pharos Administrator and Pharos Remote.

What is the Pharos Print Center Connector? I do not see the port that it uses on any of the port documents I have gotten from Pharos. What happens if it is blocked on all routers?

Pharos Print Center is a web site that is installed on one of your Uniprint servers. It uses SSL via a web browser which is port 443. The industry standard port for SSL is 443 so I would not think a router would be blocking this.

If user can be added by registering their cards, can they also be automatically put into a specific group?

By default card registration that happens will put the user into the default group in Uniprint called 'public'. A user record in Uniprint can be altered during the Logon Event if so desired but scripting that would do this is a billable item.

...also, the reprint holding time is only good for secure print, correct? How would a directly-printed (via popup) job be held at the device after it's printed?

The setting for a Reprint Holding Period also affects a Direct Queue. The job is held by Uniprint via the Pharos Administrator or Pharos Remote.

Are certain print driver types "more friendly" with Pharos than others? For years our team believes PS is "better" than PCL. Maybe this is from the v 8.2 days. Universal drivers are nice, but the queue is tied to a Pharos port and cannot query the printer's IP and the driver settings/features do not get auto-populated.

There is no right or wrong printer driver to use with Pharos products. The correct driver to use depends on the applicatio/job/device triad that you use in your environment. We recommend testing various drivers with various document and applications to see how the various output is your devices.

As for the Windows Print Queue not being able to contact the device to obtain settings, you can change the port on the Uniprint Queue to a TCP/IP port directly to the device and have it ""obtain settings"" from the device then switch the Port back to the 10 Pooled Secure Ports our application uses."

I enabled Card Registration on the Bank used by my PC Release stations but it is not working. What gives?

The Pharos PC Station does not follow the settings of the "Bank" under the Network Terminal section, it only follows the settings under "Plug-Ins" and "PC Pharos Station" sections.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but will there be a similar training webinar for Blueprint 5.x ??

This is a good question, we can take this into consideration for one of our future webinars.

We use LADP for authentication .... how can I access that LADP data via scripting?

Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish the Pharos LDAP Authentication plug-In does allow for additional attributes to be returned from a successful authentication of user credentials however you will need to have a Custom Script to be able to do something with those values. It can be accessed in scripting by parsing the result of the authentication. Normally the returned value is either "OK" or "FAILERROR MESSAGE". When additional attributes are returned the result string will be "OKAttribute1Attribute2". Note that there is no after the last attribute in the string.

I sometimes see $0 cost jobs becasue it can not determine the size ..... can these jobs be blocked?

Uniprint has a Page Counter that is used to determine the ""Attributes"" of a spool file. If the Page Counter is not seeing the Page Size then you should ensure that you are using thelatest version from our web site. If you are using thelatest version and you can replicate this behavior with a specific print job and driver combination we would like to know by opening a case with Pharos Support and all the details.

The Uniprint Print Service has a registry key that will disallow ""Zero Length Jobs"".

When set to 1, this allows jobs to proceed even if the pagecounter fails (which results in a zero page count) and the Windows pagecount is not applied (i.e. when the ‘Use Windows Info On Page Count Failure registry setting is off), or the Windows page count somehow returns 0 itself. The job will be listed as zero pages (and zero cost) and can be printed."

If print groups establish jog cost method and print type, how can a device be related with more than one print group? How would pharos know which (say) cost method to apply to a given job?

A Queue can only be assigned to one Print Group so the Print Job will be associated to this Print Group for charging

How do I create a package with only 64bit drivers

To create a Pharos "Package" with only 64-bit Printer Drivers then you need to only install the 64-bit Printer Driver on your server. Uniprint will see that a Print Queue has both print drivers for both architectures and will build a driver package for each. if only 64-bit drivers are found for the Print Queue uniprint will only use that. There is not a way to tell Uniprint to only use one or the other.

Do we still need to set a 2-second difference in MFD poll period between the timing in the MFD and the timing in Pharos?

Can you provide a few more details on the specifics of your question. Uniprint has a setting on the Release Station called "MFD Poll Period (Seconds)" which was due to behavior of devices not responding to LPR as they were busy. There is an older script that was used in conjunction with this setting and the script merely used LPQ to check the status of the device.

Is customization for notify/informed print coming? not particularly by machine, but by situation?

Via our Scripting language Notify can be failry customized. I would need to more about the specific situation your looking to have it customized by. We can bring this to the Product Manager for additional review.

Is there an easier way to instruct us in batch uploading? for example, a mac excel csv won't work, i have to convert it to a pc excel csv, then batch upload users. why is that?

This is most likely due to the formatting of the file from the Mac OS. Without a sample of a failing file I cannot say exactly but you can save the file from Excel on the Mac to a "Windows Comma Separated (.csv)" file.

Is there a graphical representation of relationships between release station/queue/device/print group, and the overall print process showing how jobs pass through the system for direct and secure printing, including what parts of windows it uses vs. what parts are pharos? if not, consider it a request

In the Pharos Administrator under Output Management > Overview you can see a graphical representation of the Print Group > Queue > Release Station > Device. You can even re-configure the system here by dragging icons around the screen. You can save this diagram to a file that you can then print if you like. There are in the Help File for Uniprint a few graphical diagrams of the general workflow, nothing too exciting though and nothing in great detail like your request seems to indicate you would like to see.

Can Bryan explain how and why a single cost center associated with a user is just selected rather than chosen at an iMFP for charging copies, prints, or scans?

This is because if a user is assigned to only one cost center, rather than have the system prompt the user to "Select" just the one Cost Center the system uses it and the user is logged in with it.

Hi Josh! No, it isn't full.... but just about 15 minutes ago I clicked on this and got the same message and have been looking into it. I logged into our GoToWebinar account and something is going on that has caused our webinar to disappear.

We are looking into it and I will update you when I get a new link! (hopefully today!)

I think i can add a little to the answers to a few of the questions posted above.

Q: When you make a change in Administrator, it is automatically saved, but not "sent" to the devices until you hit Change Control. There is no "Undo" of settings you changed during a Pharos Administrator session, right? If you exit Administrator without clicking Change Control, those changed settings are still 'saved', right?

A: That is correct. An entry's configuration is saved as soon as the entry being configured loses focus (i.e. as soon as something else is selected). Changes are not saved while the entry is still being edited, so that multiple properties can be altered at once. Change Control informs the "System" that there are changes that need to be obtained from the database and applied.

Actually, a change to a property is saved as soon as the property loses focus. If you edit one property and put the focus on another property, the change is saved. (In earlier versions, moving to another property didn't save changes; I'm a bit unsure about whether Uniprint 8.0 is the first version in which it does cause a save or the last version in which it doesn't.)

Q: I believe that statement about reprint holding period is incorrect- as those jobs are not shown to the user queue only via remote or admin- he needs to correct that statement

A: Jobs that are held for "Reprint" can only be released via the Pharos Administrator and Pharos Remote.

Somebody may have been confusing the "Reprint Holding Period" feature (in Output Management -> Devices -> Printer), which has been in Uniprint for a long time, with the handling of print release failure under the default setting of "Relist as Free Print" (configurable in System -> System Settings -> Printing), added in Uniprint 9.0.